Quick Overview

The IDIOT happens to be Elif Batuman’s first novel collecting the romantic adventure of a young girl in the year 1995. The dangerous love sparks off and we are completely puzzled if this is the root for Elif’s title “The Idiot”

Her name is Selin a daughter of the Turkish immigrants in USA. Having a different background won’t stop her from joining one of the prestigious universities in the world and that is Harvard. She decides to take on a course with subjects she isn’t familiar with meeting new people and one of them is Svetlana. Svetlana from Serbia a young man with his own lifestyle and understanding. These two get along well since they are classmates, they the chapter of life is quite favorable

In no time, Selin fortuitously befriends Ivan a mathematics student from Hungary. The two share nothing in common, except sharing emails. Surprisingly, the emails they share happen to hold more words, meaning, and ideas they share verbally.

She writes her emails in Turkish and this is quite fascinating to Ivan who adores the words

In these days, emails are quite new and at first, Selin has no idea about how to use an email given to her by the University administrators. While learning to use the email, that’s when she bumps into Ivan

Selin and Ivan in no time engage in a doomed love affair. They choose the hide outs to express their affection. The vibrant relationship meets the waves when it is the end of the school year and Ivan heads to Budapest while Selin heads to Hungary. From there, Selin gets an English teaching program and with time, she gets into contact with Svetlana with whom they explore the wonders of Paris and enjoy the summertime.

Is this love or confusion, what Selin is soon to discover is the journey that renders her to self realization, hurting, and self establishment

Elif Batuman writes every chapter with much vigour, accurate grammar , commanding power and yet very touching and alluring.

We suppose that every girl would pick a leaf from this book. What is interesting is the fact that Selin falls for Ivan just because he praised her emails yet there is one (Svetlana) who is much closer and concerned about her